This invention relates to a fishing reel of the double bearing type, and more particularly to a double bearing-type fishing reel designed to enhance the ability of letting out or releasing a fishline.
Typical reels of the double bearing type are disclosed, for instance, in Japanese Utility Model Examined Publication No. 2-36389 and Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 3-79665, and each of these reels comprises a spool, which has a fishline wound thereon, and is rotatably mounted between opposite side plates of a reel body, and a clutch mechanism for switching the spool between a fishline-winding condition and a spool-free condition. By switching operation of this clutch mechanism, the fishline can be released from the spool, and the released fishline can be again wound up on the spool.
A fishline-winding barrel portion of the spool in these conventional double bearing-type reels is formed into a deep groove-configuration, so that the spool has a large line-winding capacity. That is, since the angler desires to use the fishline under a less curled condition, the spool is generally designated to have a relatively large winding capacity so that only a portion of the wound fishline occupying the large diameter winding area of the spool is used actually during fishing. For example, when the fishline to be used is 8.about.10 Lb line, a spool, having a line-winding capacity of 140.about.200 m is used.
However, the amount of the fishline, normally released, taking a safety margin into consideration, is usually 50.about.70 m although it may vary to be more or less depending on the fishing style. Therefore, more than a half of the fishline wound on the spool is not usually used, and hence always remains wound on the spool. Because of this remaining portion of the fishline, the overall weight of the spool is increased thereby increasing the moment of inertia. As a result, the fishline-releasing ability is adversely affected, and also a backlash phenomenon (in which the fishline becomes loosened because the speed of rotation of the spool becomes higher than the speed of release of the fishline) is liable to occur. And besides, since the amount of winding of the fishline is large, the turns of the wound fishline bite one another, so that the fishline can not be smoothly released from the spool. And further, when the spool is brought into a freely-rotatable condition by switching the clutch mechanism, the moment of inertia is further increased as a result of production of a rotation resistance, since an inner periphery of a pinion is disposed in contact with an outer periphery of a spool shaft, thus aggravating the above problems.
In the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Examined Publication No. 2-36389 and Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 3-79665, in order to prevent the backlash phenomenon, a magnetic braking device or a centrifugal braking device is mounted on a spool rotation shaft. However, a strong braking action is necessary for preventing an excessive rotation of the spool, producing a large moment of inertia, and therefore magnets or centrifugal collars are increased in size and weight. This is not desirable.
Apart from the above prior art, Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 60-81776 discloses a technique in which an economizer is fitted on a fishline-winding barrel portion of a spool so that the amount of winding of the fishline on the spool can be varied. However, since this separate member, i.e. the economizer, is mounted on the spool capable of rotating at high speed, a rotation balance is adversely affected during the release of the fishline, so that casting noises are liable to be produced. And besides, because of the provision of the separate member, the overall weight of the spool increases to produce a larger moment of inertia, which again reinforces the above-mentioned problems.